A/N: Woot! Up-date! Man! Finally, eh? Enjoy!

Chapter Twenty-One

A Messed Up Conscience

Danny spent most of the day in the training room. Alas, Vlad found out he was home and began to make his way to the lab as well. "He does seem to be spending a lot of time down there," the middle-aged man murmured as he went. He frowned as he heard the sounds of battle as he went down the hidden staircase to the lab. And he sighed as he found the sounds were coming from no other place than the training room. Making his expression thoughtful, Vlad made his way towards the door, and put his hand on the knob. He stopped in mid-action, and pulled his hand away. He wondered on what level Danny was working on...

Vlad switched direction and instead made his way towards what looked like a regular wall. On the side was what looked like a rectangle-shaped metal plate with a small, ruby red button. He went on to press the button, and part of the wall, the exact shape and size of a door, began to slide across to one side, granting Vlad entrance to the hidden room. He walked inside and made his way towards a large counter keyboard with another couple of switches and dials. In front of the counter keyboard was a window-like screen that showed Vlad exactly what Danny was doing. He was, actually, looking into the training room, watching Danny's every movement without the boy even knowing he was. Vlad frowned again, and his brows furrowed. This level, he knew, must be in a high number. He'd told Danny there were only ten levels. But, this training course was built like a game. You can go into one level, and it would gradually develop into more difficult scenes and forms of training.

Depending on which basic, primary level you were in, the progression may be easy, or very difficult. Danny was facing many types of weapons and life-like holograms that were actually solid, along with a couple of weapon-bearing bots. This could not be an easy level of progression. Vlad typed in a couple of things on the keyboard and looked at a small screen on the counter-keyboard. He couldn't believe his eyes! How long had this boy been down here?

On the screen it read:

Level 10-24

It must have taken him hours to reach that number! "He's going to over-work himself," Vlad mumbled worriedly, looking back through the window. Danny was shot down and went crashing into the opposite wall. Vlad winced and expected Danny to just sit there, slumped against the wall from exhaustion, but to his great surprise, the boy pulled himself right back up and blasted the bot attacking him. Vlad shook his head and sighed before looking at his wristwatch. The boy had been here for hours, he knew. In fact, the time on his wristwatch read 9:47 PM. Vlad didn't like the conclusions jumping into his head. Had Danny even eaten anything? Had he taken any rest whatsoever? Has he re-hydrated the number of times he had to in order to keep up with all this training?

Vlad, suddenly, didn't think of it as training at all. The boy, he guessed, must be...how would the kids say it these days? Blowing off their anger? Vlad didn't care for 'how the kids would say it'. All he knew now was that he must stop Danny before he drove himself much too far!

The middle-aged man quickly exited the hidden chamber and walked straight into the training room, which still remained in game-mode, I guess you may call it.

Danny took no notice of him at first. Or at least, that's what Vlad thought. Behind him, the door closed.

Danny was in his ghost form, naturally, and was looking very tired. But even so, the boy did not take a rest. Vlad had been watching him from this point-of-view for mere seconds and already even he felt exhausted. He began to speak, but was cut off when he saw Danny turn in his direction after blasting a bot. Vlad's eyes widened at the boy's wicked grin. This only made Danny's smirk wider as his hands began to glow more brightly. Then, once Vlad was convinced the boy would fire at him, an enemy, a hollographic ghost, suddenly stepped before him. One which Danny took care of swiftly. Vlad let his breath out in a rush of relief.

Danny grinned at his expression and quickly walked over to the opposite wall to turn off the mechanical room. Once the scenes and graphics had dematerialized, Danny took a deep breath and brought one fisted hand to his waist. His chest heaved and his throat hurt, but he ignored all these details and focused on the man before him. His green eyes looked as vivid as ever.

"Daniel," Vlad said sharply. The minute the word left his lips, Danny rolled his eyes and slumped to the ground, leaning back on his arms and his legs out in front of him. Vlad knew he was tired and didn't want to listen to him, but he continued anyway. "How long have you been down here?"

Danny seemed to ignore him, eyes down to the ground in front of him as he tried to control his breathing and heart beat patterns. Vlad was about to repeat the question when Danny finally looked up at him, moving only his eyes, and after taking a deep breath, replied in a breathless voice, "I...lost count..."

"What time did you start?" Vlad asked.

"Can't remember," Danny said, shaking his head. He licked his lips and, sucking in another breath, added quickly, "I do remember the news were on when I came down here, though."

"The news?" Vlad asked, raising an eyebrow. Danny's nodded, having not yet caught enough breath to reply again.

"Daniel, I don't want you to spend too much time down here," Vlad said. Danny began to object, but Vlad quickly cut in. "I know it can relieve stress to train your powers, but it is not necessarily healthy for you to over-work yourself."

"Well, what else...can I do?" Danny asked.

"How about...poetry?" Vlad asked. Danny rolled his eyes. He pulled up one knee and leaned one arm on it. "Many poets write to get rid their stress."

"Vlad," Danny said, adding a touch of humor to his voice. "I can't write a poem to save my life! The last time I wrote a poem it was a mandatory homework assignment and I got a D-!"

Vlad frowned. "I just don't want you to hurt yourself, Daniel," Vlad said. Danny side-frowned, contemplating what the middle-aged man had just said, and just looked at Vlad.

He sighed, lowered his glance, and took a deep breath before saying, "This kind of stress you can't get rid of through a poem, Vlad."

"And what kind of stress is this, Daniel?" Vlad asked solemnly.

Danny looked at him and picked himself up with what little energy he had left. He transformed back into Danny Fenton, not once taking his eyes off the older man. "The kind that comes from a messed up conscience," he replied just as seriously. Then he began to walk past Vlad and out the room. He only got as far as to the door when Vlad called him back.

"And Daniel," he said.

Danny stopped, hand on the door knob, door half-open.

"What exactly 'messed up' your conscience, my boy?" he asked.

Danny grinned sickly and lifted his glance a little bit. Vlad only looked at him as the boy half-turned his face towards him. "Things you will never be able to imagine even if I told you."

And with that, Danny left out the room, leaving Vlad to think about his reply in silence and solace.

E/N: A little uneventful, but hey, I'm trying my best here! -grins- it'll get interesting, just watch!

--Airamé Phantom